Still waiting for district manager

The Algonquin Hotel's annual Cat Fashion Show showcased some of the most sharply dressed felines on Aug. 3, 2017.

Julius Constantine Motal

By Michael Hinman

The list of possible replacements for Michael Heller as Community Board 8’s new district manager has been whittled down to seven.

At least that’s what Dan Padernacht, the chair of the district manager selection committee, shared during a meeting Monday night at the CB8 office.

The committee perused 37 applications to find the seven they were most interested in, with one round of interviews completed earlier this month, and another set in the coming week or so.

While the committee itself has opened its meetings to the public, the interviews (and those participating) are taking place behind closed doors.

CB8 is trying to find what would be its fourth district manager in the past three years, replacing Heller who stepped down in October after just a few months on the job. Heller, who made $75,000 per year, was chosen from some 50 candidates last spring.

It’s not clear when the committee will be able to name its top candidate to be considered for the position, but that announcement could come as early as January.

Press photographer finds cat call(ing)

While it’s not exactly The Riverdale Press, the newspaper’s chief photographer had some of his black-and-white work featured in another notable publication over the weekend.

Julius Constantine Motal, who joined The Press staff in April, earned a chance to share the world of cats throughout the city in last Sunday’s edition of The New York Times.

Motal spent the past several months visiting almost every gathering related to cats he could find, including a cat fashion show at the Algonquin Hotel in Manhattan, a “Meowmania” cat party in Brooklyn, and a performance of the Amazing Acro-Cats.

It was that Meowmania that got him started on his catwalk through the city, and from there, “I just rode the wave from one cat extravaganza to the next,” he told The Times.

Have a look up the narrow pathway connecting Arlington Avenue and Kappock Street in Spuyten Duyvil and one might see a steep trail of hideous, uneven pavement snaking between warped side rails bent out of shape. It’s like something out of a Gothic fairy tale.